European forums additional info
This is the wiki page for the official european forums of the MMORPG World of Warcraft by Blizzard Entertainment. The forums allow unrestricted access to anyone, but posting can only be done through an account obtained by purchasing a retail version of the game, and paying for an account. There are a number of sections all dealing with various aspects of the game, with the General Forum being the most popular due to its wide range of topics. Community Managers Thundgot The first Community Manager of the EU boards. Formerly known as Cz - Community Manager of Anarchy Online. Thundgot is Norwegian. Avatar: Undead. Aeus The second CM to join the team. Aeus is from Holland. Avatar: Goblin. Vaneras The third CM of the EU boards. He comes from Denmark, as stated in this interview: http://www.wowi.dk/news.php?extend.63 Avatar: Dwarven hunter. Crezax The newest CM of the EU boards. Previously a Game Master. He is Swedish. Avatar: Gnoll Famous Posters Anvilbeard Anvilbeard first became known as a presence on the EU Suggestion Forum, pioneering compilation and co-ordination threads, e.g., "The Defining Weather Thread", "The Dome" and "The Forum Suggestions Compilation Thread", the latter of which remains stickied in the Suggestion forum to date. With the inevitable slow, painful death of the Suggestion forum, he migrated largely to the General and Off-topic forums (as did many others at the time) where he maintained a noticeable post count/frequency. He also frequently posts in the Technical Support Forums, helping other players. A while ago he earned a commendation from TechLead. At the time of the realm forums creation, he pioneered an effort to post a 'Realm Guide' in each, generally detailing information about the realm, forum, and attempting to create a guild list. Unfortunately, some were annoyed at this trespassing, and spammed the threads. Anvilbeard deleted the spammed threads, and left the constructive ones. Some still remain bumped by guilds, but very few are still stickied in their respective forums. Over time his activity generally faded when compared to others such as the (in)famous Wormsborough, until a short while before the release of the first ever Warcraft Weekly, which debuted around the time of the release of Patch 1.6.0, where he once again began posting, answering tough questions and generally being a know-it-all. Warcraft Weekly Archive Quotes "This forum alt is being played by twenty chinese children. One day I'll make it to Forum Rank 14" Wormsborough Category:Community Wormsborough is a poster who became known for her sharp wit, sharp retorts and extremely wide knowledge of WoW. As a highly active poster, she answered questions that most people didn't know or didn't want to answer. Also, mostly together with other posters like Safas/Rilion, she derailed whole threads which were unconstructive, whiney and/or stupid into witty discussions with often a competitive feel. Though her preference for gnomes of all the playable races is a known fact, she was first posting on a undead character and then switched to a level 1 gnome solely used for posting. Also her sex wasn't known when she started posting and it was only after she was quite famous that people learned she was female. Her big love, besides gnomes, is goblins and she has always been a big fan of goblins as a playable race. On the Roleplaying part of the forums she has posted the Journal of Grahg - Smartesest Orc in land!. Gragh is a primitive orc, a former peon, who uses crude languages and doesn't understand half the things that happen to him which leads to a hilarious report of his activities. He started out as a warrior but has later on been swapped for a hunter. At the moment Gragh's journal is not being updated because Wormsborough is too busy to do so, and her forum activity is low, if not non-existant these days. Final Post Wormsborough announced that she would be leaving the forum on 28 November 2005 with the following post: :Greetings to my most idolate fans, those who hate my guts (or at least my text here), and those whom are currently thinking "Who the **** is this?". :I'm just taking the time to announce that due to a lack of time your favourite forum troll/poster/helper/blizzard wannabe (Mentally encircle whichever you find appropriate) will no longer be around to spam/post/be helpful/be the opposite of helpful. :I would hereby like to pass the crown of forum rulership (in so far it exists) to Safas! Since he deserves it, considering he's as much good at posting as I am. :You will not be seeing me post much any more, though I will, in the future, make a final ending part to the Journal of Grahg. :So, it's time for a goodbye I guess. :/Wormsborough waves goodbye to everyone. Farewell! :(Note to flamers: This is not an "I'm quitting WoW" post, but an "I'm not posting on the forums anymore" post, please adjust your flaming to match this, thank you) This post proved to be nothing but a bit of drama as Wormsborough was soon seen posting in various RP threads again. TotalHalibut A well-known forumposter in the Planetside community, TotalHalibut aka TotalBiscuit aka TBisatroll started posting in the WoW EU General Forums soon after game launch. He is well-known for being unpleasant to people who he views as idiots. When he wishes he is quite capable of posting extremely well-written and lengthy posts, such as the open-letter from Daggerspine to Blizzard which is thought to have contributed to the prompt opening of a second migration from the server, which alleviated some of the atrocious lag and queue issues that the server suffered from. Most of the time he can be found using cold-logic, sarcasm, irony and a merciless tenacity to troll, derail and generally destroy threads which he views as pointless, badly-written or just generally angsty. During his earlier forum posting phase, we was warned and banned by Blizzard EU for excessive unpleasantness. TotalHalibut's two most distinguishing features are his insistence that the mage class is absolutely fine and that "whiners" need to "Learn2Play" and his trademark sign-off 'TB', which has been known to infuriate some people, much to his apparent pleasure. He also hosts the successful "EPIC" shoutcast and podcast together with his friend Kiki on WoWRadio. Final Post TotalHalibut left the forums, following in the footsteps of such greats as Wormsborough, leaving a typically provocative final post in his wake. :Not going to post here anymore. For anyone that cares, I'll list the reasons below. For those that don't, feel free to stop reading now and post some kind of flame. I expect some good ones though, not your average run-of-the-mill flames.. :Basically this is an awful community. Of all the forums and newsgroups I've posted on in the last 8 or 9 years, this is the worst. The vast majority of you are idiots, let's face it, with nothing worthwhile to say. Those with something to say tend to get drowned out by the intellectually challenged. :Mage-whiners need to learn2play, that simple. You lot are a disgrace to the class. Contrary to your beliefs, a few hundred of you do not constitute the entire mage player base and making excuses for your mediocrity by blaming the class and everything about it is just spineless. :And it's turning me into a bad person, in the way that I'm actually enjoying insulting people and being unpleasant. It's not as if I'm adding anything worthwhile to the discussion either. Feigning the whole arrogance thing and 'zomg I'm better than you in every way' was fun for a while but y'know what? I'm actually starting to believe it and that's just sucks. :The lack of memorable and interesting members on this forum is just worrying, but here are a few honourable mentions before I leave. :Anvilbeard - The most informative poster here by far. :Kawaii - Amusing forumgnome :Wormsborough - RIP :Thecowking - Rocks :Kiki - Destroyer of worlds :Lysander - Ftw :So yeah, I'm off lads and laddettes, I'll cya in game. O RLY?, no, you may not have my stuff. It's fine, I've learned2play, yes, the forums will probably be the same without me, additional forum cliche. :TB. The Return Never able to stay away, TotalHalibut returned to the forums months later. Slowly chiming in on various topics quietly. He returned to the scene fully during the Shaman and Paladin debacle of Summer 2006, where he posted the most significant and largest thread opposing the Burning Crusade changes regarding the classes. This thread received a good response, despite some trolling from other, lesser-known posters, some apparently having followed him from Planetside and harbouring a grudge. Despite the size and prominence of this thread, it did not receive a Blizzard response. TotalHalibut objected to this fact on his show EPIC, pointing out that a thread called 'Stop Whining' which was in full support of Blizzard's changes did in fact receive a blue response and that they had asked for constructive criticism and yet when it came, did not deem it worthy of a response. It could be argued that this was the beginning of the end for TotalHalibut's forum days. The Ban :Unfortunately none of the original source material for this article survives, having all been deleted from the forums. TotalHalibut started a player movement against gold-farming, within the rules of the game, hoping to receive Blizzard support. No such support was forthcoming and in an effort to promote the project and perhaps give people some enjoyment in the process, TotalHalibut released the first Chronicles of the Goldfarmer video, a documentary style machinima, aimed at educating and entertaining people. The subject was of course, a goldfarmer. The promotional thread for this movie was deleted and subsequently, the trailer for Chronicles 2 suffered the same fate. Upon the release of Chronicles 2, a further promotional thread was posted and deleted. TotalHalibut reposted the thread and it was locked, receiving a response from Thundgot, community manager. Some took the view that this was a threatening and over-bearingly draconian post, others simply think Thundgot was doing his job. TotalHalibut posted a protest thread in response that was deleted so fast that few got to see his defense. TotalHalibut was then banned from the forums. The End? TotalHalibut is the host of EPIC, a popular WoW podcast. Many tuned in to hear what TotalHalibut's response to his ban was, including Thundgot. Some expected an all-out declaration of war and spam campaign however it would appear that TotalHalibut had other plans. His response has a hefty on-air criticique of Blizzard's policy regarding goldfarming and their moderation methods. Forum posts started appearing all over the EU General forums, many being locked quickly and their posters banned. However, the EPIC show thread remained and grew to over 10 pages in length at which point TotalHalibut released his final parting gift in the form of a viral signature campaign for 'Gankfarmers.com' which pointed directly to Chronicles 2. This act will be remembered specifically for the reason that not only was it difficult if not impossible to silence, but Thundgot himself changed his signature to it for a duration and is also said to have made many concessions in the EPIC show thread, including what some perceive as a turn-about on his original opinion. Sadly this thread did not survive, along with everything else related to the matter. While TotalHalibut's actions were fantastic promotion for WoW Radio and the Chronicles series, some have criticised it for being the reason that Blizzard Europe has effectively cut-off relations with WoW Radio. Some however, would argue that such relations barely existed in the first place and that Blizzard Europe particularly are in no way supportive of their fansites. Chain A short lived, lesser known poster he nevertheless developed a strong cult following within the off topic forums, most known for his strange use of the english language, bizzare threads, effective trolling and fondness for the word "mens" (used to describe almost every person). He provided an alternative to the countless "/hug /kiss" threads and is a sorely missed poster. His dissapearance followed a claim in an ingame mail sent to a player that he was locked in blizzard's dungeon next to a noob that could not speak english (poetic justice?) and to this day he is still there. This was probably his way of saying that he was banned, most likely for pestering the roleplaying community with his questionable humour, marvelous works of fiction like the "Cloud Baby" stories and asking them repetedly if "Hulkhogan" and "Batman" were good roleplaying names. All of his threads seem to have been removed and Chain himself has not been seen for a number of months. Possible Return Recently, a number of threads containing Chain's specific brand of humour have been spotted in various sections of the forums. While many are created by differently named level 1 alts, the similarities in theme, spelling and structure have left many active posters with no doubt as to the creator. Maybe the most convincing evidence to date is the brief use by one of the alts of a signature that directly follows from Chain's original "FICKS HUMARUS KEW PLZ" by stating "they ficksed haumarush kew". Quotes "GOOD PREVAIL THE MIGHT" - Chain Replicant A poster that first gained attention with his seemingly neverending quest to obtain the paladin epic mount, Replicant has since evolved into one of the better (or worse, the views are divided) trolls on the european forums. His tendency to start inflammatory threads and in his own words "pwn" any attempts at disagreement has earned him many friends and enemies over time. Since most of his posts can be interpreted as either genuine rants or thinly-veiled attempts at baiting the more impressionable forum users into outraged replies, the jury is still out on the ultimate motivation of Replicant's twisted mind. Kawaii She's cute. What else can you say about her? Well, she's witty, atleast more often than not. She's also very often quite irritating. She might be some kind of a cross between a Gnome and a Troll. She's been mentioned in the Warcraft Weekly once or twice. She made a nice thread about the 5th Alliance race in http://forums-en.wow-europe.com/thread.aspx?FN=wow-general-en&T=682267! Also, Anvilbeard likes her (although this hasn't been confirmed). http://img48.imageshack.us/img48/2833/wiggle3hc.gif Lysander Lysander was the creator of the thread, "How to make a Warcraft Movie: The Basics," which eventually drowned in the masses of the forums. He is known to insert witty remarks, and is commonly affiliated with the view that Blizzard does listen and that they do care. Confusion often arose when it was revealed two users, both regulars on the general forum, were posting. Although one lysander is known to reside on genjuros and indeed made the movie making guide, the undead Lysander was responsible for often reassuring people that Blizzard listen. He also used to have a guild on the server Genjuros, called "Lysander FTW," but this disbandoned. Lysander commented: "Reasons beyond my control resulted in the existance of Lysander FTW to cease. I'll get those meddlin' squirrels one day. ONE DAY." http://forums-en.wow-europe.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-general-en&t=797886&p=1&tmp=1#post797886 Is Now Dead Roflskates Roflskates is a known troll. She has done some very poor trolling attempts, spelling everything wrong, and writing things in caps. She spams every thread possible, and over the time there has been many people that wants to be like her, also doing some very poor attempts on being look-alike. She is Kawaiis worst enemy, mostly becourse Kawaii reported her so many times, and did not get banned. At first she claimed her age was 12, but after being directed to the forum rules where it stated you were required to be 13 to post, she immediately said that "12" was a typo for "13." After she was banned there were many imposters posting from realms other than Drak'thul, but these people were not around long. Roflskates re-entered the forums under a new account on January 16th 2006 after being permanently banned on the previous one for spamming and trolling, under the realm Trollbane. A screenshot of Roflskate's WoW login. Quotes "u been 2 old ironforge?!/1 wowow what clan r u gfrom!?! are u have some hax plxxxxx to get down to old ironforge? plzpzlpzlpzlz? u a hacker?" -Roflskates For more Roflskates messages. Highlander A well-known guide author, with loads of guides under his name at the Professions forums. He's answering loads of questions on the Professions forums, if they are, of course, not in the stickies... Links to his guides: Power Levelling Guides for All Professions, A List of Foods That Give Buffs, Full List of Profession Trainers, Where to Mine Ores - A Guide, The Best Places To Find Cloth. Tinker Now a well-known guide author like Highlander, he has made a guide to the Fishing Extravaganza and Engineering. He also answers questions around the Professions forums, and is known to be writing an extensive walkthrough of the Tier 0.5 questline. Xarantaur The lore master. His various contributions and stickies on the Role-Playing forums have been useful to many. He is also known to know Chris Metzen. Nolol A Famous forum troller on the EU boards, mainly on the Test realm EU forum. He is well know for his random ASCII Spamming Random Lyric spamming,trashtalking and flaming. Also known for His spam song and his Signing off Singature -Salutei Frequent Forum Behaviour Included here because of recurring appearances, the use of some of these items is considered by most forum users to be pointless, immature and generally idiotic. The O RLY bird The O RLY bird and its derivations (YA RLY, NO WAI) are thought to have been brought over from the american forums by some of the younger and more enthusiastic trolls posters. It was used heavily in its ascii form for a period of time in 2005, also spawning other World of Warcraft related ascii art (eg. Learn2Play man). The use of the picture form gradually died out of its own accord and it is a rare sight nowadays. The shorter text form including just the question (O RLY?) is still used in many cases. Learn2Play Thought to be an exclusively WoW related term, Learn2Play was originally developed by our friends over on the american forums. It originated from a shaman named Nert, as an effort to repel players who were calling for the nerfing of his class. Usual post format is a single line reply with only the words Learn2Play (no spaces), or one of its derivatives. These can involve using no capitals or broken spelling in one or both words (eg. lern2plai, L2P). The phrase "It's fine," is also sometimes used before the "Learn2Play". The term is usually used in nerf and whine threads that attempt to point out a perceived gameplay advantage or disadvantage towards a specific class. Learn2Play signifies its poster's disagreement and usually disdain for the plight of the thread starter and carries a suggestion that the latter should better familiarise himself with the proper use of his or her character. In short, the poster is trying to say that the issue specified does not exist and the real problem is the thread starter's lack of skill. Learn2Play was famously turned into a spoof poster for a Vin Diesel movie in response to the many threads lamenting the perceived faults of the paladin class. Nerf Shaman Threads This category includes the almost endless supply of threads by forum users who believe that the shaman class in its current form is overpowered, meaning it is easier to play succesfully (usually in PvP combat situations) than any other class. This belief seems widespread amongst the WoW community, seemingly more so on the side of the Alliance, though the most aggrieved classes appear to be the Shamans counterpart, the Paladin and the Mage. While many arguments have been used over time to try and prove these allegations of imbalance, "nerf shaman" threads are usually instantly spammed with "O RLY?" and "Learn2Play" comments and rarely lead to any constructive dialog. The fact that this popular stance has as yet resulted in no direct game changes from Blizzard makes a strong case that the perceived extra advantages of the shaman are actually a myth. A common occurance many months ago, posts in by the Shamans who had unfairly tolerated these "nerf shaman" threads for many months would often retort to using quotes similar to those found on the Random Vin Diesel Fact generator. For example "Vin Diesel has 160 talent points" could be used to suggest that Shamans could take all the points in their talent trees, thus making them viable healers, meleers and spellcasters. These "Vin Diesel Facts" are made up to show that many of the nerf whiners have little clue about the subject they are complaining about, as many seperate specialisations of Shamans exist but none have everything as they suggest. To this day in many EU Shamans minds, Vin Diesel remains their biggest mascot. Repetition Introduced into the mainstream forum by Anvilbeard in an episode of Warcraft Weekly, the practise of many posters posting the same phrase has increased in popularity in recent times. Some of the most famous phrases were: *"You will melt faces as a shadow priest in pvp" *"You got the lag" *"Why are you playing a " *"Legolas dual wields Dawn's Edge" *Any reference to a cloak that is "... white, cool and longer than your average cloak" The proper stoneskin gargoyle cape phrasing is "it looks pretty cool too. It's white and looks longer than your average cloak or cape." It's fine, lern2thottbot noobs. *Using a variation of "He/she/it despawns at 20% saying how it is not its time yet" *Turning someone else's statement around using "In soviet russia..." as a prefix *"It Is a Horror Effect" (a warlock fad talking about the new deathcoil buffs in 1.8) IBTL Standing for "In before the lock", this common acronym is almost always posted in threads that are believed to be violating the forum Code of Conduct and therefore locked in the near future. The term "lock" refers to a GM preventing any further posts to be made in the thread. There are many reasons why "IBTL" is so popular, many depending on the specific user. Some consider it a challenge or a game, other quote "fun" to be a primary reason. Can I have your stuff? One liner used exclusively in the popular "I quit" threads, where the original poster wants to inform the forums that due to one reason or another they will be cancelling their WoW account (losing all their characters permanently). "Stuff" refers to the gold and items that the thread starter has amassed on all his characters, which would be destroyed permanently on character deletion. However, since in World of Warcraft all wearable items are soulbound (meaning only usable by 1 character), the term is used more out of a tradition carried over from other mmorpgs and is used sarcastically rather than as an actual appeal for freebies. First, Second, Third (etc.) Similar to IBTL, some in the WoW community seem to take pride in being one of the first people to reply to a thread. This behaviour is seen mostly (but not exclusively) in GM threads, which are the most read and have the potential to grow very large. The format is usually the numerical reference, followed by an empty line and then a possible witty comment (eg. "LOL") from the poster. Many people frown upon this practice, but due to the particular mentality (and age) of some forum posters it is likely to continue for years to come. Spelling wrong on purpose This is an thing, that mostly level 1 forum characters does, basically to troll around, one such example is written by Xeqterz the level 6 tauren druid where he writes the following: "hey ai gut a problim ai juzt cnat rezzzurekt becuz ai diad and nuw aim wiht a gost becus he killd me ai think he was a cretur... so huw do ai ress? or muzt ai creat nu car? tank u" Mostly, this are just trolls that are bored out of the mind, or just to annoy people. There are loads of example of this gibberish on the World of Warcraft Europe forums.